The layout depicts no particular area or
railway company. As
usual for Japanese layouts the scale is Japanese N-scale, which
is 1/150th scale. All Japanese 'N' scale models run on standard
'N' scale track. The rails are 9mm apart. You can find trains of
JR, Kintetsu. Meitetsu and other Japanese railways. Trains
running on 3'6" gauge and those running on 4' 8½"
gauge are running on separate tracks which are not connected. The
tracks representing 3'6" gauge are Peco code 80, the ones
representing 4'8½" gauge are Fleischmann 'Profi Gleis'.

This layout is being rebuilt at the
moment, I hope to report
in the near future.

This layout is named 'Hokuriku Honsen',
or Hokuriku Mainline
in English. The layout depicts the station of Tsuruga in western
Japan and its surroundings. I took lots of license to adapt the
existing station into what will be a nice model railway with lots
of operational interests.

I put in the pictures to show you how the
construction of the
layout moves on. It can take years before it is finished!

Unfortunately this project is shelved for
the time being,
priority is given to the 'J-Module' project, more information at
the bottom of this page.

Layout nr.
3is a compact
layout built in Japan by a British diplomat and brought back to
Britain. It is called the "Yama-no-yu-sen" or in
English "The hot spring in the mountains line".

The
layout has the exact size of a traditional tatami mat, rooms in
Japanese homes have the floor covered with tatami mats. The
layout depicts a fictious branch line in rural Japan, the railway
is not electrified and both diesel and steam trains can be found
on it. When taking the photos it was intended to have a pleasant
running session. Intead of running trains I spent an afternoon
faultfinding and soldering!

Layout nr. 4is a large layout that was to be seen on
several model railway shows in England and once on the European
Continent when it travelled to Dortmund, Germany in April 1997.

Layout nr. 5 is one of the first Japanese outline layouts
built in Britain. It is the famous 'Seibu Shinjuku' layout by
Tony Mc. Diarmid. Sadly, this wonderful large layout has been
scrapped now. Only the terminus station survived.

Layout nr. 6is a small layout built by fellow
JRS-member Steve Waterfield. The layout depicts a shortline
serving a port area, the whole thing is packed with industries
and shunting action!

Layout nr. 7 is a 'table top' style of layout that is used by George
Swainston for promotional purposes. The whole layout is made with
ready-made viaduct sections and can be set up in a short time.

Layout nr.8 is built in the UK by Phil Hendry. It depicts a
steam-era locomotive depot

Layout nr.9
is again built in the UK, this time by Norman Raven. It depicts a
rural scene during winter. The snow is worth mentioning!

Bonus layout.
This layout is also built by Davy Cormack from Scotland, but this
time in the garden layouts.

J-Module
is a new project for a modular model railway to be built in
Europe. On these pages there is some basic information on this
new system. Modular railway modelling is great fun!

Linked layouts,

Layouts built by other enthousiasts,
represented on the Web.

Doug Costerfrom Australia has
built an exhibition layout,
Japanese outline of course! The link also leads to his shop.

Another layout
built by Doug Coster is
this Tokyu Setagaya line tram layout. This beautiful layout will not be displayed on shows anymore, but Doug will build a new larger layout, 2 sides of Japan

Matthew Davis is building a Shinkansen layout, the layout is
still under construction, the pages are already running!

Meanwhile, Matthew
has moved and had to dismantle the Shinkansen layout, but luckily he
found time and space to built this new
layout

The
Japan
Rail Modelers from Washington D.C. have a portable layout
for display on modelling shows and other events.

Claude and Eric Binaméfrom Belgium built
their own small Japanese layout. Pages include trip reports and
other railway interests. French, some Dutch, German and English language.

Soraichi-senis a project from one of my friends, it's a layout
built on small modules and the scenery has a strong Hokkaido flavour.

Will Vale from New
Zealand is building a small layout with an Enoden
theme. This is a nice layout that fits a limited space.

Bram Osborne is one of the few who model Japan's railways in 1/80 HO-scale on 16.5 mm gauge track. Bram has a weblog reporting the progress of his project.

Shozo Kitamura
built a 0-scale narrow gauge mini-layout, full with detail.

T-Trak
is a relatively new modular layout system, aimed at tram
(streetcar) modellers. The idea originated in Japan, but was
further developed in the USA. Modules are the size of a A4 sheet
of paper, tracks are Kato Unitrack.

Martijn Meerts has set a site about the JR-Chiisai project. Both layout and site are under constant development.

Ernst Furrer from Switzerland built this great Swiss narrow gauge
layout. Not japanese, but too good to be left unnoted! Part of this
layout was on display at Intermodellbau 2006 in Dortmund, Germany.

** Please
take notice of this **

If you
have a Japanese outline model railway and you would like to have
it on this site or if you already have it on the Web, please
e-mail me. Maybe it can be put on this site or
I can put in a link to your site.